Second time cooking, Chicken Parmesan

For the second time in one month, I decide to do the cooking. Most of my friends know that I am a master chef, I could cook two really delightful dishes, being omelet and boiled eggs :D. But for this time I decided to try something new, thanks to Google I found a recipe for Chicken Parmesan, you know, that dish you find at Johnny Carino’s and most italian restaurants.

So, I got the recipe, it was step by step, with a quoted preparation time of 30 mins and cooking time of another 30 mins. Fairly easy, or is it…

First step in any recipe is getting the ingredients. Yeah right, easier said than done.

P.S. If you’re viewing this on facebook, please click “View Original Post” below to see the original, it looks better!

Ingredients

1. 2 eggs, beaten (easy enough).
2. 1 cup grated (مبشورة) parmesan cheese (thought I’d find that pre-packed like mozzarella or emmental, but no sir, there aren’t readily available, I had to buy a big chunk and grate it myself).
3. Boneless chicken breasts (the ones you use for chicken pane’)
4. Tomato pasta sauce (I guess normal tomato sauce would still work, but the Heinz pasta sauce is good and seasoned well)
5. Mozzarella cheese.
   Ready for the fun part??
6. Italian breadcrumbs (بقسمات).
   Now I thought to myself, what the heck are italian breadcrumbs?!! Couldn't find it anywhere, not metro, not Carrefour, no where. Solution? Asked my best advisor (AKA Google), that’s easy enough to make at home, will show how after the jump.
7. Italian seasonings.
   Again had no idea what those were, and could not find them anywhere either… Yup, you guessed it, thanks again Google, they are easy enough to make.
8. Olive oil.

Now you might notice that I didn't specify exact amounts, well, I just add whatever it is the ingredient till I feel its good enough. Some people disagree, but these are not the ones who tried the food!

How to make italian seasoning at home

You’ll need the following, this time I kinda stuck to the instructions, but not entirely, as I didn't have some of the ingredients and I didn't like others, so here’s what I used, YMMV:

1. 3 tablespoons dried basil (ريحان).
2. 1 tablespoon coriander (Cilantro, كزبرة).
3. 1 teaspoon dried thyme (زعتر).
4. 1 tablespoon garlic powder.
5. 1 teaspoon dried rosemary.
6. “Some” black pepper.
7. “Some” red chili flakes.

Put them all in a deep bowl and mix, the scent will tell whether you got it right.

How to make italian breadcrumbs at home

Now that those italian seasonings are done, its time to put them to good use. What you’ll need is:

1. Some bread, not fresh but not rotten either, it needs to be dry.
2. Some italian seasonings.
3. Some grated parmesan.
4. A blender (خلاط).

Note: If the bread isn't dry enough, like that I used, put it in the oven on low heat for 10 mins or so, then take it out and leave it 10-20 mins in the air to dry out. Then cut it into small pieces as pictured above.

Now you have some ingredients and a blender, what do you think you will do??

Exactly, blend them all :D

Start with a few bread pieces, then add the seasoning and blend a little more, then add parmesan and blend some more. Keep adding bread till you have enough, if the crumbs don’t get dark enough, you don't have enough seasoning!

Now all the ingredients are set, lets start…

Cooking Time!

You need the breasts to be about 1 cm thick, if they are thicker, either pound them with a hammer (not from your toolbox, a food hammer :P)

Now, put the breadcrumbs on a shallow plate, and beat the 2 eggs and put them on a similar plate. If you have any experience with frying, we are going to fry the breasts first using the italian breadcrumbs.

1. Dip the chicken into the eggs.
   
2. Coat it from the breadcrumbs.
   
3. Fry it in olive oil till it turns golden (if you don't know when is a piece fried, then you shouldn't be reading this anyway :P)
4. Now get an oven baking dish, line it with the tomato sauce (I added a layer or parmesan on top of that too).
5. Put the fried chicken on the plate, cover it with more tomato sauce, then more parmesan and mozzarella.
   
6. Put it in the oven till the cheese melts and enjoy :D

Those black markings are traces of burnt sauce, don't leave any traces of sauce before putting the plate in the oven and you wont have those!

Final note, never believe these devious quoted times in recipes, it said 30 mins + 30 mins, totaling 1 hour. I took me 4 hours to make this. But then again, I am a master chef :D